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Introduction
Two fundamental principles were agreed at the Copenhagen Summit
on Social Development in 1995. The first principle is that sustainable*
social progress cannot be achieved without creating and maintaining
environments at both national and international levels which will
enable such progress. The Summit agreements emphasised especially
the importance in this context of developing such enabling environments
in the fields of politics, economics, law and culture.
The second principle is that sustainable social progress and sustainable
economic development are mutually interdependent. While economic
development is necessary to expand resources and opportunities for
social progress, so social progress is necessary to nurture and
preserve economic development. The Summit also recognised that short-term
economic growth does not necessarily produce sustainable economic
development, especially if economic growth is measured only by reference
to so-called gross domestic product.
The Copenhagen Summit was a very rare event by reason of the breadth
of issues which it considered, the range of governments and other
organisations which were involved at a high level, and the degree
to which economic issues were considered from a relatively comprehensive
range of perspectives and interests. These factors contributed substantially
to the Summit being, as is now widely acknowledged, somewhat “ahead
of its time”.
Only two years after the Summit the validity and importance of the
two fundamental principles referred to above, were starkly demonstrated
by the series of financial market failures across the world. Yet
they continue to receive little more than lip service, at best,
from many of the most powerful policy-makers and actors in international
spheres. This applies especially amongst leaders of the wealthiest
countries and multinational corporations.
It is important that major international gatherings of a rare nature,
such as the Copenhagen Summit and the follow-up meeting in 2000
of the UN General Assembly, focus especially on macro-issues and
on fundamental, long-term responses to them. It is also important
that they focus especially on developing and pursuing specific options
for international action on these issues. They should
not be diverted into concentrating principally on meso- or micro-level
issues, short-term responses, vague exhortations or false promises.
They also should not deny or obscure the extent to which developing
countries, in particular, need international cooperation to enable
them to pursue the necessary actions at their own level.
This paper looks at three major areas in which a greater degree
of international cooperation is desirable in order to promote sustainable
social progress throughout the world, especially in developing countries.
The proposals involve international cooperation aimed at
- strengthening
governance;
- strengthening
standards;
- strengthening
targets and resources.
The
proposals have been drawn largely from discussions at a series of
more than thirty global and regional forums, involving more than
a thousand civil society organisations, which have been organised
by the International Council on Social Welfare since the Copenhagen
Summit.
* “Sustainable” is used in this paper
to describe something which is likely to be maintained over the
longer term rather
than as a reference to the narrower, albeit important, concept of
ecological sustainability.
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